Rubio 2.0 Just Doesn't Care Anymore, Goes Right at Pramila Jayapal During Hearing

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Secretary of State Marco Rubio just doesn't care anymore, and it's leading to some very satisfying exchanges with Democrats. Gone are the days of his moderated statements and a care for one-sided decorum. Rubio 2.0 leans forward during congressional hearings and lets it fly. 

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ALSO SEE: Rubio Decimates Chris Van Hollen in Exchange About Deportations and USAID


Enter Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who decided to poke the bear on Wednesday. The congresswoman attempted to pepper Rubio with questions about the recent revocation of student visas for those supporting terrorism, and he went right back at her. 

RUBIO: She was a guest in the United States on a student visa. No one is entitled to a student visa. We deny visas every day, and we will revoke and consider revoking visas. 

JAYAPAL: You revoked her student visa based on an op-ed, which trumps the supreme law of the land, which is the Constitution. 

RUBIO: If someone is coming here to stir up problems on our campuses, we're going to revoke their visa.  

JAYAPAL: She didn't do any of that. She wrote an op-ed. She wrote an op-ed, and I'm talking to you about her particular case.

RUBIO: That's her lawyer's claims and your claims. Those are not the facts. 

JAYAPAL: Reclaiming my time. You revoked her student visa because she wrote an op-ed.

RUBIO: Yes, proudly.

This next part is even funnier. As Jayapal continued to press, Rubio just doubled down harder, saying, "And we're going to do more of them" to her complaints.

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JAYAPAL: Would you revoke...

RUBIO: And we're going to do more fo them. We are going to revoke the visa of anyone who's in the country as a guest who's here to stir up trouble. 

JAYAPAL: Are you going to revoke the visa of somebody who made that statement (crosstalk)?

RUBIO: I'm looking to get crazy people out of our country. 

JAYAPAL: Actually, it's not just about revoking, you actually (crosstalk)...excuse me, reclaiming my time. 

(Clip break)

JAYAPAL: If these are legitimate law enforcement agents carrying out proper arrests, why are they hiding their identities?

RUBIO: Because then radical crazies will try to hurt them...

The woman Jayapal keeps bringing up is Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen who has already graduated from the University of Massachusetts (yeah, that checks out). She wrote an op-ed claiming Israel was committing "genocide" in Gaza and demanded divestment from the American ally, providing support for Hamas. 

Answer me this. Why does this person need to be in the United States? Does Turkey not have universities with doctoral programs? And how does being here to get her doctorate include her meddling in the affairs of American institutions? If she's going to come to the United States to help stir up unrest in support of a terrorist government, then a flight home seems like a perfectly reasonable response. As Rubio said, no one is entitled to a student visa. They are a privilege, and if someone isn't a net positive for the country and its interests, they have no reason to be here.

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Let's be clear. If I went to Turkey on a student visa (or any visa), they'd revoke it or worse in a heartbeat for far less than what Ozturk did. Further, if she's so unhappy with how things are going in America, she can just leave. But if she won't do so, then it's up to Rubio and the administration to make that judgment for her. Gone are the days of a student visa being faux citizenship, where people who hate this country can take advantage of it for years on end without any consideration for whether they should be here in the first place. 

Rubio 2.0 keeps raising his profile even though he's not even trying to do so. He's got nothing left for the press or their Democrat allies, and that's turned him into an effective weapon against the far left's abuses.

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